Reno
is many things to many people, but foremost, it is the place to go to see the
unlimited class racers flog their engines in the quest for the checkered flag.
"Whipping it," so to speak. This year, warm temperatures, well
prepared racers and relatively calm winds meant high lap speeds for the modified
Mustangs, Sea Furies and Yaks. There was even speculation that fans might even
see the mythical 500 mph lap.

The unlimited class had slots for 24 racers; 12 P-51's, 13
Sea Furies, three Yak-11's and a single T-28 vied for the spots. The field this
year was extremely fast: a stunning fifteen unlimiteds turned in lap speeds in
excess of 400 mph! Reno 2000 was going to be many thing to many people, but most
of all it was going to be fast.

Some
big names had thrown their hat into the fray in the Gold class. The inline
powered racers included former champion Skip Holm behind the stick for the Dago
Red team. He was favored in Sunday’s Gold race, due in no small part to the
victories the team earned in 1999 and 1998. Dago appeared this year with a paint
scheme that included purple flames over the familiar white and yellow stripe.
Bill "Tiger" Destefani was returning to go for the gold, supremely
confident that his six-time champion Mustang Strega would allow him to retire
from air racing with a final victory. The highly modified Mustang trio was
rounded out by Matt Jackson, flying Bob Button’s Voodoo. The racer had spent
the last five years experiencing race modifications, growing pains and the worst
luck imaginable. This year, the aircraft was well prepared, and featured a Jack
Hovey race prepared Merlin.

The radial crowd at Reno 2000 was headed up by Brian
Sanders and Dreadnought, the Super Sea Fury mated to a R-4360. Over the years
Dreadnought has defined what a fast and reliable racer is; they have won more
money coming in second than most racers ever will coming in first. Up to the
start of Reno 2000, Dreadnought had experienced only one engine failure in 16
years of racing! Tom Dwelle brought his Critical Mass Super Sea Fury back to
Reno after a great 1999 race. Dwelle and crew had rebuilt their R-3350 and
really had the aircraft up to speed this year. Mike Brown, a former competitor
in his R-3350 September Pops, had grown some fangs, and had another Sea Fury
prepared for Reno 2000. September Fury also sports a R-3350 modification, but
with several major changes - fuel injection and a boil-off oil cooling system.

Nipping at the heals of the front runners were a whole
gaggle of Mustangs and Sea Furies. Bill Eberhardt bolted on some go-fast mods to
his P-51 Merlin’s Magic, while veteran racer Bill "Rhino"
Rheinschild returned with his Risky Business Mustang. Art Vance would fly the
other R-4360 powered Sea Fury, Furias. To round out the field, Sherman Smoot
would again race John Moore’s Czech Mate, the highly modified R-2800 powered
Yak-11 that had blown an engine and caught fire at Reno 1998.

The action got started with the beginning of qualifying on
Monday. Tiger strode out and strapped into Strega for his qualifying attempt;
the racer appeared to be in top form and would probably be capable of a 500 mph
lap. Unfortunately, the attrition card reared its head and struck at Tiger. With
moderate power on the aircraft, Tiger was turning quick laps and flying
conservatively. Suddenly, the radio crackled with a mayday call; it was Tiger -
trailing a stream of white smoke. He pulled off the course and made an
uneventful landing on runway 14. Talk in the Strega pit afterward centered on an
ADI problem that lead to a torched piston. The uphill battle to get the aircraft
ready to qualify - let alone race - had begun. The crew worked almost around the
clock in order to get the necessary repairs made.

Attrition
would also seep into the round engine ranks at Reno. Brian Sanders had flown
Dreadnought rather conservatively on the course during qualifying, coming up
with a speed of 438 mph. The huge racer seemed to be loafing around the course
with ease, and race fans knew this beast could turn laps in the 460 mph range.
Unfortunately, a post flight inspection of the engine’s screens revealed a
very small amount of silver; the first signs of a main bearing failing. "We
caught it early," Sanders said. "We’ll be able to rebuild this
engine instead of having it blow up on us. We’re actually upbeat about it. It
could have gone unnoticed, and we could have had a failure out on the race
course. Then I’d have to do all that heroic pilot stuff," Sanders
laughed. Although Dreadnought was now out of the competition, it was comforting
to see such a professional and safe approach to racing. One racer down...

More
problems were occurring with Sherman Smoot and Czech Mate. The highly modified
R-2800 powered Yak-11 had been campaigned for years by Bob Yancey with a degree
of success. Now owned by John Moore, Czech Mate had been rebuilt and tuned for
Reno 2000. During Smoot’s practice sessions on the course, the R-2800 was
producing some vibration at certain power settings. The crew worked on the
engine early in the week, pulling jugs and checking pistons and exhaust valves.
By Tuesday, everything had been put back together for a test flight. Smoot took
to the course like a man possessed; his line was low, tight and consistent
around the unlimited course pylons. The stubby racer sounded great as he turned
the course somewhere in the low 400's. Unfortunately, an afternoon test flight
on Tuesday ended with a dramatic mayday. Smoot was at altitude east of the
airport when he radioed a mayday. Something within the engine had come apart,
and the racer was trailing smoke.

With altitude, a bit of time, and options, Smoot glided
back to the west and made a textbook deadstick landing in runway 8. Still
smoking, Smoot touched down about 1,500 feet from the threshold and brought the
Yak to a stop on the runway. When the aircraft was towed back to the pits, a
teardown showed the piston in the number 7 cylinder had either torched or had
simply broken. A psi test on that cylinder allowed air to blow back into the oil
tank, and other parts of the engine were also suspect. Two racers down...

The
practice and qualifying sessions also saw Bill Eberhardt call a mayday that went
almost totally unnoticed, as it happened at the same time Tiger called his
mayday. With all eyes on Tiger and Strega, Eberhardt was low on the course
turning 400 mph laps when his power went from the neighborhood of 100 inches
right back to 20 inches. With the power stuck there, Eberhardt maneuvered his
Mustang to a hot landing on runway 8. As he pinned the mains on and applied
braking, he had the presence of mind to shut off the mags and prevent the racer
from going off the end of the runway. The culprit was a broken throttle attach
bolt, and the problem was easily fixed. Merlin’s Magic posted a respectful
qualifying speed of 413.842 mph.

Mike
Brown had raced at Reno the previous few years, and has become in important
participant in his R-3350 Sea Fury September Pops. With faster speeds in mind,
he had another racing Sea Fury built up by the Sanders family. Named September
Fury, the aircraft had been finished and test flown only days before departing
for Reno. Brown flew the pylons like he’d been doing it for years: very low,
tight and crisp lines around the course. There was little doubt that Brown had
come to Reno this year to bring home a trophy and some prize money. He qualified
at a stunning 433.173 mph; a fantastic speed for a brand new aircraft.

The rest of qualifying was relatively uneventful. With
Strega struggling with engine problems, the odds-on favorites had to be Dago Red
and Voodoo. The highly strung Mustangs would surely win - if they held together.
They qualified at 498.681 mph and 435.518 mph respectively. Right behind them
was September Fury, while Tiger limped around the course in the ailing Strega at
429.858 mph.

Dwelle’s Critical Mass had blown an exhaust valve in
1999's gold race, and was forced to mayday from the race. In the off season, the
crew had torn down the damaged engine and rebuilt it to near perfect condition.
Reno 2000 was shaping up to be a great year for Critical Mass, except that the
team was experiencing ADI problems. Without enough ADI to cool the induction
temperatures, Dwelle would be unable to pull full power from his engine. The
crew would work on this problem throughout the week, but would never really get
a handle on it. Dwelle initially qualified Critical Mass at a disappointing
429.610 mph, but vowed to fix the ADI problem and take a second attempt. On
Wednesday, Dwelle said they had found their horsepower, and took off to
re-qualify. It was obvious that Dwelle had the R-3350 wicked up a great deal
more, as his lap speed was visibly faster. Unfortunately, his higher qualifying
speed was disallowed due to a course deadline cut. His earlier, slower
qualifying speed would stand.

In contrast to the normally reliable radial crowd, some of
the Merlin racers were having an easy time of it. Skip Holm sauntered out to
Dago Red, strapped in, and ripped off a 489.681 mph lap. Holm’s line around
the shortened course was smooth and very tight; he’d lost nothing since racing
Stiletto in 1984 and winning the Gold race. Afterwards, Holm said, "If I
had know I was going that fast, I would have run another lap with some more
power. I was pretty wide on pylon four; I’m sure I could have done a 500 mph
lap."

Matt
Jackson also had an excellent qualifying run in Voodoo. Along with the new Hovey
roller cam Merlin, a new propeller comprising a P-63 Kingcobra hub and T-28A
blades was also being used. A custom-made spinner with a pointed tip was also
fabricated and topped off the new look. Jackson had spent 25 hours test flying
Voodoo at Jack Hovey’s facility at Eagle’s Nest, California. With quite a
bit of Mustang and racer time, Jackson appeared extremely comfortable at the
stick and made the racing look easy. He went out and whipped a 435.518 mph lap
to secure the second fastest qualifying spot. It was apparent that with all of
the failures and bad fortune the Voodoo team had experienced in the past, they
were not pushing the engine hard at all. They wanted to make it to the show come
Sunday.

Racing got underway on Thursday of race week, but the top
five Gold class racers were excused from participating. Pylon action centered on
Jim Michaels and the resurrected Miss Merced Sea Fury in the Bronze race. Miss
Merced had seen quite a bit of action around the Reno pylons in the late ‘60's
and early ‘70's, and she was now returning under the ownership of Michaels and
Steve Bolander. Painted in a color scheme reminiscent of her 1970's flame paint
job, Michaels ripped of lap after lap in the beautifully prepared yellow racer
and battled the R-4360 powered Furias for second place. Rhino made
an easy win out of the race in Risky Business at 412.514 mph.

While
the days’ event were being played out in front of the crowd, news had come
from the rented hangar where Strega was being worked on. "We’re
out," Tiger said. The master of air racing deception, partial truths and
Psychological Ops was being quite real; during the test flight and subsequent
qualification flight, Strega’s oil temperature had skyrocketed, damaging the
main bearing and sending some metal to the screens. Even though the engine wasn’t
damaged beyond repair, another top runner was out.

(Tiger had announced that this would be his last year in
the cockpit racing Strega, but as he pointed out, he never even got the chance
to race. Will we see him back next year? It certainly seems that way!)

Friday’s racing saw Steve Bolander begin his takeoff in
Miss Merced, get airborne, and lose power. He brought the throttle back and
landed straight ahead. One of the R-3350's mags had soured, so he was forced out
of the day’s Bronze race. Art Vance in Furias took the checkered flag at a
rather sedate 385.359 mph.

The Silver race was full of action as Rheinschild sprinted
to the lead and stayed there until he pulled up and out of the lead. He called a
cool "Mayday" on the race frequency, had race control check that his
gear was indeed down, and made an uneventful landing. Once again, a throttle
linkage problem caused a Mustang to mayday. The real action came a few moments
later as Hoot Gibson rounded pylon one in Riff Raff. Close in and close behind
another racer, Gibson was extremely tight on the pylon and possibly inside it.
He, as a response to wake turbulence or to avoid a pylon cut, went knife-edge
and booted top rudder. As he recovered on the northwest portion of the course,
the induction intake atop the cowling failed catastrophically, sending parts
down the intake trunk and into the engine’s supercharger.

The
ensuing backfire and engine destruction shook Gibson and Riff Raff as he called
a mayday and brought the racer up off the course. He maneuvered the red and
white racer towards runway 14, but came in high and a bit fast. Gibson
aggressively S-turned the red and white Sea Fury, and low to the ground, was
forced to point the nose at the sagebrush to maintain his airspeed. As the crowd
held their collective breath, Gibson recovered his speed and pulled the nose up
quickly as the tires chirped on the runway. An audible exhale came over the
crowd as they realized they just witnessed one of the more hairy maneuvers of
the week. Gibson had done an outstanding job of handling his aircraft and
avoiding disaster, but now another racer was out of the competition...

During the lineup and start of Friday’s Gold heat, more
racers experienced problems. Brent Hisey and Miss America taxied back in after
experiencing mag problems, and Critical Mass never even made the start. As
Dwelle cranked the engine, a crew member alerted the crew chief to a large
stream of fluid coming from the bottom of the aircraft. Dwelle was immediately
instructed to shut down, and he did so. The fluid turned out to be the extra-hot
racing fuel coming from a broken fitting on a one-inch feed line. Although this
problem was easily fixed and Dwelle raced the next day, it could have ended with
total disaster for all.

The final problem of the day came when the four remaining
racers came down the start chute; Mike Brown and September Fury called a mayday
right before the racers were released to the course. Brown radioed his pit crew
that he had a chip light, then engine roughness, then failure. He brought the
prop back to extend the glide of the powerless Sea Fury and executed a
well-flown deadstick approach. Another top contender was out for the year, and
only three racers were left to fly this particular race.

Front runner Dago Red leaped onto the course and set the
pace while Matt Jackson and Voodoo remained in his hip pocket. Neither racer was
running full power, but speeds were still in the 440 mph neighborhood. In third
place was Dan Martin in Ridge Runner; and he knew he couldn’t keep the pace.
He throttled back and cruised the pylons, enjoying the view from third place.
With only three Mustangs on the course, there was a moment for joking on the
race frequency as Martin exclaimed, "You guys better not pass me. I’ll
have to get mad!"

A few moments later, Holm keyed the mic in Dago Red and
retorted, "I can’t help it, my throttle is stuck."

The racers finished as they started; Dago in first at
443.037 mph, Voodoo in second at 416.603 mph, and Ridge Runner in third at a
comfortable 360.166 mph. For a few laps, Voodoo had run with Dago and showed the
fans that they could keep the pace. The anticipation for Sunday’s final race
was growing; it looked like Voodoo and Dago were going to make a show of it!

In
Saturday’s racing action, Critical Mass had been bumped down to the Silver
heat due to their Did Not Start (DNS) on Friday. Dwelle made an easy race out of
it, starting at the back and easily passing everybody in the field. It was
almost comical; it seemed like every 30 seconds Dwelle was calling another racer
on the radio, letting them know he was driving by them. Dwelle took the race at
428.800 mph, bumping him back up to the Gold race on Sunday.

For the most part, the weather during race week had been
favorable for the Mustang crowd. Clear skies and warm temperatures were
dominating, which gave the edge to the inline engine racers. The radial racers
had suffered tremendous attrition, and were a bit handicapped by the warm days;
cooling and ADI flow rates were a factor. Nevertheless, Dwelle and Critical Mass
were the only radial engine threat to the Dago Red and Voodoo Mustangs.

Sunday dawned clear, and surprise - just a bit cooler than
normal. They day’s airshow had included the US Navy Blue Angels, Jimmy
Franklin and his prop and jet powered Waco biplane, Sean Tucker and a full day
of racing in other classes. Winds, normally gusting to 20 and 30 knots by the
afternoon, were light and variable as the Gold unlimited racers were towed out
in front of the grandstands. The record crowd was on their feet as each pilot
was introduced and interviewed; cheers were going up for the favorites.

One by one, each racer cranked their engine and taxied out
to the active. Steve Hinton, flying the TiVo sponsored T-33 pace plane, made
sure each aircraft was ready and took off for the Gold race. The racers took
off, joined on the T-33, and came back down the start chute.

Normally, Hinton would release the pack a mile or so
behind the grandstands, but Voodoo had snuck ahead of the pace plane. Hinton
gave several warnings to Jackson, and held the start until just north of the
grandstands. At the last second, when everybody thought Hinton would bring them
around for another start, he radioed, "Gentlemen, you have a race!"

Jackson,
flying Voodoo, had backed way off the power in an attempt to come even with the
start formation. Just as he had things under control, the start was called and
Skip Holm had mashed Dago Red’s throttle. The race was on, and Dago was
screaming past pylon three as Jackson got the power back on Voodoo and
accelerated towards the leader. The rate of acceleration was simply fantastic,
and it showed the fans that Voodoo can, indeed, run with the big dogs.

Holm was whipping Dago hard with a hot lap speed around
477 mph, with Jackson fighting back from a position four seconds behind the
leader. Halfway through the eight lap race, Jackson whipped Voodoo a bit harder
and began to close the distance; he came to within two seconds of Holm. Dago’s
pit crew saw this, and had Holm bump Dago’s power a bit. Even though there was
some distance between the two Mustangs, it always looked like Voodoo had the
chance to take it.

Tom Dwelle and Critical Mass had started at the back of
the pack due to their finish in Saturday’s Silver heat. Even though the ADI
flow rate problem had not been solved on their R-3350, Critical Mass was still
able to pass the whole pack except for Dago Red and Voodoo. Remaining between
nine and 12 seconds behind Voodoo, Dwelle just couldn’t get enough ADI to keep
his induction temperatures down. Without full power, he had to settle for
crossing the finish line in third place. The poppy red racer, however, looked
and sounded great, and Dwelle’s line around the course was consistent and
smooth. For having so many top-contender radial engine aircraft out of the final
race, Dwelle did them proud with his performance.

As lap six rolled around, Dan Martin had been keeping a
decent pace in Ridge Runner until he also torched a piston and maydayed from the
race. With white smoke pouring from the exhaust stacks, he made an excellent
landing on runway eight. Shortly thereafter, the throttle linkage again failed
on Bill Eberhardt in Merlin’s Magic, forcing him to also call a mayday on the
seventh lap.

As
it stood, Skip Holm polished the pylons with tight, low, and consistent lines
during the Gold race. He kept the power where it had to be to keep ahead of Matt
Jackson and Voodoo. Holm blistered across the finish line at an average speed of
462.007 mph, with Jackson behind him at 459.793 mph. Dwelle took the checkered
flag a few moments later with an average speed of 434.962 mph. Bill Rheinschild
had forfeited his win in the Silver race to run in the Gold, and he crossed the
finish line fourth with a speed of 415.771 mph.

With Jackson jumping the start, fans, officials and
competitors knew that when the dust cleared, there would be some jockeying of
the final results. When word came down, Jackson and Voodoo were penalized one
lap for their transgression, which bumped them to a fifth place finish. As it
stood, Dago Red was the winner, Critical Mass was second, and Bill Rheinschild
took third in Risky Business. Voodoo’s adjusted speed was 406.225 mph.

After the Gold race, it is customary for the winner and
first two runners up to park in front of the grandstand to receive their
accolades and trophy. But Reno 2000 had two more events in store for the fans.
When Skip Holm had made his remarks about a 500 mph lap earlier in the race
week, he apparently wasn’t kidding. Owner Terry Bland and Holm made a decision
to turn Dago Red immediately after the Gold race, and take the course in an
official attempt to record a 500 mph lap.

As Dago was hurriedly pulled into its pit, several MiGs,
an L-39 and a T-33 put on an exhibition jet race; something that the Reno Air
Race Association has been pondering for a few years. As the jets took the
course, the MiG-17's made great spectacle by turning the pylons with
afterburners aglow, while the T-33 and L-39 flashed by. Although having one jet
race in the schedule might be interesting, if this is any indication, it will be
far from mesmerizing.

As the sun sank towards Peavine Mountain, the Dago Red
crew had serviced the racer with minimum fuel, water and ADI. Holm strapped in
for his record attempt; in many ways, this was the high drama event of Reno
2000. Many knew that the Dago Red / Skip Holm combination would be as close to
unbeatable as one could get. But the Merlin in Dago had been beaten up all week,
and had burned off a large amount of its wick. How much of it was left? Would it
last the 59.6 seconds it would take to run a 500 mph lap?

Holm, a former Air Force combat pilot, Lockheed test
pilot and unlimited champion, had made remarks about flying a 500 mph lap some
found to be cocky. In fact, it is Holm’s expert opinion of the ability of his
aircraft and the conditions in which he would be able to break the lap barrier.
It came down to simple knowledge and a belief in his abilities, and those of his
crew chief Bill Kerchenfaut, engine builder Dwight Thorne, and the rest of the
Dago Red crew.

Holm again strapped in to Dago’s cockpit and fired the
Merlin off. As hundreds of photographers burned off the Kodak, Holm taxied out
for his record attempt. On takeoff, the Merlin sounded normal as the landing
gear folded into the wings, and Holm banked left to enter the course. No
dilly-dallying here; he was getting right to business.

"Race 4 is a mayday..."

The
Dago Red crew may have known it even before Holm did, as the telemetry showed a
drop in oil pressure within the spent Merlin. As Holm turned crosswind, the
Merlin gave up whatever it had left in it and threw a connecting rod through
both sides of the bottom engine’s case. Holm guided the powerless Mustang to a
landing on runway 14, ending his hopes of being the man to set the bar higher
than anybody had set it before. For now, at least...

Reno 2000 came to a close and left many wishing for a
different outcome. In the most simple cases, each team with a broken aircraft
probably wished they hadn’t broke. For many of the fans, Reno once again had
way too many repetitive airshow acts and too little focus on air racing. Even
the advertising and billboards around town toted the slogan "Racing With
Legends" with a picture of a Blue Angel FA-18 jet.

For the Dago Red team, they had won the Gold, but at the
cost of their engine. Granted, the engine was pretty much used up after the
race, but it would have been a more gratifying victory if Dago had been able to
hold it together for another lap and a half.

For team Voodoo, they were just a short step away from an
upset victory. Even though Jackson jumped the start, he has a "Whip
it" attitude and will be an important competitor in the years to come. For
owner Bob Button, Reno 2000 was a huge victory in the sense that Voodoo held
together and provided the only competition for Dago Red. Next year, look for
Voodoo to arrive at Reno as a front runner; a refined racer able to meet or beat
anything Dago Red or Strega can throw at it.